Here is a shoot I did in the old part of Anoka, MN. I really struggled with staging the car in this shoot. This was also one of my first shoots where I really started to play with curves and other more advanced tools in Lightroom and Photoshop. Because of this, I think the color in some of these are a bit off.... you be the judge.

And then here I wanted to show another "evolution" of a photo based on advice from other photographers.

Here was my first photo with some processing.

then I got some advice to play with the curves, make the background less intrusive, and a few other things. And I came up with this....

I got some further advice about some things I did wrong, and some things I did right but could still improve on. I ended up with this....

Notice how the background evolved. Also take a look at how the cars colors and contrast evolved. I think the cars color ended up a little odd looking in the final version, but for the most part I am happiest with the last one.

If you look close on that side view photo, not only did I darken the background, but I blured it, and desaturated it a bit so the car stood out more.

On the transparent hood one. It's a process I am still trying to hone. As you can imagine I take a photo of the car with the hood close and one with it open without moving the camera.

Then before I process the photo at all, I cut the engine out of the hood open photo and drop it onto the closed hood photo as a new layer. Then I copy the closed hoos and drop that over the motor as a third layer on the close hood photo.

Then I just delete away the closed hood layer as desired to show off the motor.

Here is another one I did. Again, I am still honing my skills so it's not great, but I did it.

Why not just open the open hood shot as your initial photo...then open a new layer with the closed hood shot...then erase the portion of the closed hood. That would save you a step and a layer. Cool shots by the way.

Why not just open the open hood shot as your initial photo...then open a new layer with the closed hood shot...then erase the portion of the closed hood. That would save you a step and a layer. Cool shots by the way.

Click to expand...

Thank you for that. I have taught myself photoshop and I know I am probably doing some things the hard way. I'll try that next time.